The death of aluminum alloy cable terminals

With the country's vigorous promotion of building a resource-saving society, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has clearly stated that it will support the development of the aluminum alloy cable industry, include aluminum alloy cables in the category of new materials, and be included in the national "Industrial Adjustment Guidance Catalog", and the development of aluminum alloy cable industry has become the general trend
.

According to the data, China's aluminum alloy cable technology was brought in by UMI Electric Company in the United States in 2006, and in 2007, Tianjin Aluminum Company (now a subsidiary of General Cable) imported aluminum alloy cable products of Canadian aluminum company began to be promoted in China, aluminum alloy cable technology and products have experienced several stages
of domestic cable market and user ignorance, resistance, questioning, understanding, acceptance.
Now it has basically completed the popularization and promotion stage
of aluminum alloy cable technology and products.

North America and other developed countries have been successfully applied for nearly 50 years, how to scientifically and correctly apply aluminum alloy cable technology and products, apply to the Chinese market, and effectively cooperate with and promote the implementation of the national strategy of "aluminum (aluminum alloy in the field of medium and low voltage power distribution)", it is inevitable to further study the application technology of aluminum alloy cable, a new type of conductor cable, so that it can flourish and benefit the society
.

8 years ago, there were no aluminum alloy cable products in the Chinese market, so there was no connection application technology and connection terminal products
specifically for aluminum alloy cables.
Professional aluminum alloy cable manufacturers are actually aware that if the copper and aluminum transition terminal originally used for aluminum cable is wrong, unscientific connection technology solutions and domestic cable construction and installation, cable daily maintenance and other practical problems that cannot be standardized, they are also clear that if the use of copper and aluminum and other transition terminals as a connection technology solution will leave potential safety hazards, we all know that aluminum alloy cable products need to use a special aluminum alloy copper connection terminal scheme consistent with the performance of the connected aluminum alloy cable
。

Relevant manufacturers are working hard to try to solve this problem
.
During this period, we also discussed with professional manufacturers of connection terminals to seek solutions
.
In recent years, some cable manufacturers themselves have also carried out research and development, and finally due to comprehensive capabilities and other reasons, can not obtain technological breakthroughs, helpless can only deviate from the main body of the problem that needs to be solved, to develop the so-called high conductivity or other performance microalloy copper connection terminal, in the market known as aluminum alloy transition terminal, steal the concept, avoid the essence of the problem to be solved, that is, the connection terminal to solve the problem that the terminal and the connected aluminum alloy cable performance to be consistent, It is not a deliberate effort to improve the conductivity or other performance as a gimmick to move the contradiction of the fatal problem of the connection terminal
.

Although professional manufacturers are trying to solve the technical research and development and production problems
of aluminum alloy copper transition terminals.
However, due to the source of aluminum alloy rods required for terminal production and consistent with the performance of the aluminum alloy cable produced, the manufacturing difficulty and the high manufacturing cost cannot be solved
.
These eight years
.
More domestic non-professional aluminum alloy cable manufacturers, because they do not understand the essential difference between conductor aluminum alloy and aluminum, are mistakenly following the trend and using copper and aluminum transitions and other connection terminals
.

The data shows that after the aluminum alloy cable enters China, because the aluminum alloy conductor grades used by aluminum alloy cable manufacturers are different (AA8000 series has 6 grades), professional connection terminal manufacturers because they can not obtain conductor aluminum alloy rods that can match all grades of aluminum alloy cable conductors, meet the electrical and mechanical properties of aluminum alloy cables, and can produce various specifications of connection terminals, plus many terminal specifications, conductor aluminum alloy grades, and limited demand for terminals of various specifications, The cables produced by various cable manufacturers have different degrees of compression of conductors, different outer diameters of cable conductors, and poor terminal versatility, resulting in high molds and manufacturing costs for the production of terminals, and the cost of connecting terminals can not adapt to the market
at all.
In short, professional connection terminal manufacturers simply cannot produce aluminum alloy copper special connection terminals
that can match the performance of various manufacturers and aluminum alloy brands for aluminum alloy cable manufacturers.

One of the difficulties that aluminum alloy cable manufacturers cannot solve by themselves is: they cannot obtain aluminum alloy rods that are consistent with their own cable performance and have moderate strength, high density, good conductivity, various technical indicators meet the requirements and meet the diameter required for the production of various specifications of connection
terminals.
Because only with a continuous casting and rolling aluminum alloy conductor production line that can melt and cast large-section casting billets (at least 3700mm2 or more) and can continuously rough roll, multi-pass continuous fine pressing and rolling with large compression ratio, it is possible to obtain the qualified aluminum alloy rods
required for the production of terminals.
It is understood that at present, only the United States UMI Electric China factory in Asia has an aluminum alloy conductor continuous casting and rolling production line with a casting and rolling capacity of 3807mm2, and the largest manufacturer of other manufacturers is only 2400mm2 (including imported from Italy), and the process equipment of this production line in the United States is not available in other industry enterprises
.

It should be noted that at present, in China and even in Asia, only the American UMI company has the ability to obtain aluminum alloy rods with moderate strength, high density, good electrical conductivity, excellent technical indicators and material properties consistent with the performance of the connected aluminum alloy cable and meet the needs of manufacturing various specifications of aluminum alloy copper connection
terminals 。 If only the casting method is used to obtain the rod, and the rod is continuously rough rolled with a large compression ratio, multi-pass continuous fine pressing and rolling, because the crystallization, density, strength, conductivity, and various technical indicators of the rod cannot meet the requirements, such a rod can not be used to manufacture qualified aluminum alloy copper connection terminals
.

Secondly, the manufacture of connecting terminals also needs to have a mechanical factory
that can complete mold design and manufacturing, friction welding of aluminum alloy parts of terminals and copper, stamping of terminal shapes, toughening, trimming, quality inspection of semi-finished terminals and many other production links.
To build a complete machinery factory to produce connection terminals, this kind of
investment can not be done by any domestic cable manufacturer.